What does "Drolma" mean in Tibetan?

There are a lot of Tibetan renames, and "Drolma" means "Mother of Mercy", a very beautiful goddess. Three generations of women in the Shana family have chosen this beautiful name.

When I was interviewed in Zhongdian, Yunnan Province, I found that the landlord of the Shana family had an interesting thing to say: all three generations of women in the family were named Drolma: Dingzhu Drolma, Zhili Drolma, and Lalong Drolma, or Drolma for short. "Drolma" in Tibetan means "mother of God", a very beautiful goddess, so women like to compete with this auspicious name.

Tibetans renamed a lot, people in order to distinguish, often in front of the name plus the family name. And in a family with the same name often take their nicknames, such as Xana family of three generations of Drolma can also be called: Ding Zhuo, this Zhuo, La Zhuo.

The grandmother of the family with the highest status - Dingzhu Drolma

In the Zhongdian Tibetan family, the status of the elderly is the highest. Dingzhu Drolma is 75 years old, four generations of the same family, because the children and grandchildren are all successful, the family's prosperity year by year, the old man is no longer in charge of anything at home, to the shrine to burn incense is her only task. Every morning, the old man solemnly and seriously after completing this work, sitting by the fire to play ghee tea, kneading tsampa. Sometimes she would give a few loud lectures to her juniors if she had a problem with them.

The old man's housing was in the old man's room behind the fire pit. In the early days, the Tibetan fires stayed lit all night long, and even in winter, the old man's room stayed warm all day long. Now the concept has changed, in order to save firewood, filial piety children and grandchildren in the old man's room laid a carpet, the bed added electric blankets.

In the evening, the old man likes to tell stories to the grandchildren, and sometimes naively debated with them on some issues, she often sat quietly, twirling the Buddha's beads and chanting. Most of the Tibetan elders are Buddhist like Drolma, calm and comfortable in their old age, not only healthy but also long life.

The old man's character is very strong. 1997 Spring Festival, I went to attend the wedding of the old man's grandson, Nongbu Chilin, when the old man was sick, but she thought it was a major event in the family, as a grandmother, how can lie down? From the beginning to the end, the old man insisted on holding on to his sick body to sit by the fire for two whole days.

The Shana family had a peculiarity in that the family had always recruited a son-in-law. Dingzhu Drolma and her grandmother and mother are all recruiting son-in-law, and her daughter here Li Drolma's husband Balsang is also a door-to-door son-in-law, to Nongbu Qilin this generation has four boys, the family let the oldest Zhi Shi Qilin stay home to marry. Zhongdian Tibetans in the marriage without the idea of male superiority or female inferiority, regardless of men and women, where the oldest stay at home to inherit the family business, younger siblings are married, or for the monks and nuns. The family especially favors daughters, some family boss is a son is also sent to the monk, to the daughter son-in-law. In this way, the marriage of family members is quite common, and those who join the family do not feel discriminated against. Zhongdian Tibetan "Sen" is to marry, "拢" is to marry, meaning that there is a difference between "give out" and "to come in". In the Chinese language, the word "拢 "is used for both men and women, and "森 "is used for all marriages, and there is no deliberate distinction between a woman's marriage and a man's entry into a family, a daughter-in-law and a son-in-law in describing marriage behaviors because of gender differences, just as there is in the Chinese language. In traditional Chinese families, harmonizing the relationship between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law has always been a headache, but here the popular marriage of the bridegroom avoids the big problems often faced, and family relations are very cordial.

Zhoma's husband, Najie, 78, lives next door in the home of his son, Gertrude Dunzhu. The two elderly have three daughters and two sons. In addition to this Drolma stayed at home to recruit a son-in-law, Gertrude Dunzhu married another family, the rest are "married" to the outside. Almost all of the Tibetan families in this area are composed of men who plow the land, chop wood, graze animals in the high mountain pastures or go out to do business. Women are responsible for household chores, raising livestock and managing the fields.

The Decision Maker in the Family--This is Zhili Drolma

This is the housewife, a role generally referred to in Tibetan in Zhongdian as "Puda". "She is responsible for managing the family's finances and organizing the year's life, and she is also the cook for the whole family, except for her daughter, who burns the fire in the morning, and her mother, who does the four steps of the day. However, these days this Zhuo is not at home, she and her husband Balsang went to the summer to the hot water pond for the annual bathing festival to go, I and Nongbu Chilim to find there.

There are many hot springs near Zhongdian, among which Xia gives the largest area of hot springs. After the Spring Festival, when their homes are relatively free, Tibetans come here to celebrate the bathing festival. People bring pots and pans, knot tents, pull family with mouth in the hot water pond to live for a week, every day happy bathing, chatting, eating, drinking and resting. Of course, not every family has the time to go through the bathing festival easily, many Tibetans just take a day or two to run to take a bath.

On the way to the summer to give, Nongbu said to me: "My mom has never been to the hot water pond before to take a bath, these two years sister-in-law powerful, she has some leisure, this year more than ten days is still there!" A hot water pond, a long way to see the slope is full of a hole in the hot springs, above the cage of a large mass of white mist, wrapped in a human body, clouds of steam, hidden. Everyone's head is tied with a red silk scarf, floating around in the white fog, like a fairyland.

Nongbu Qilin and I found his parents in a cluster of tents by the hot water pond. Once inside, many people were sitting inside chatting. "ah Kaga Kaga, Bubu came back two weeks can not see a glance of the Abba Amma, it turns out that you ran to here ah. Why don't you miss your son once you take a bath!" Nongbu Qilin teased his parents.

It is true, as Nongbu Qilin said, that the former "Puda" is now really relaxed. 1963, when Zhili Drolma was 18 years old, she and Balsang got married. In Xia Na, everyone said this Zhuo Ma was the most capable and most famous "Shuda". She recalled that period of time always have endless suffering: "A mother is sick all over the body, well milk (Zhongdian Tibetan: grandmother) is not good health, and old. The old and the young in the family were old, and there were more tsampa pinches and not enough food. During the day from morning to night in the production team to work, and at night to manage a big family, all day like a thread hammer (refers to the spinning hammer) like the turn or bitter not over ah! I couldn't talk about the pain in my heart during the day, so I could only wipe away my tears at night. A few children did not study properly and grew up in the sheepfold without realizing it".

This Zhuo Ma said on the smile, yes, now she should indeed be happy only right. A few sons are so capable, and there is a good daughter-in-law Lahong Drolma, and hardworking and capable, the housework all rush to do. People in the village say that Drolma has been blessed with a good fortune, and that she is now enjoying the best of both worlds!

The housekeeper of the family--LaRongZhuoMa

LaRongZhuoMa, the sister-in-law, is really the busiest person in the XiaNa family, and most of the things inside the family depend on her. Although she is the mother-in-law, she is actually the one who does most of the work. Husband Chuchu and always outside the business, here Tibetan men are only a family outside the representative, the woman is the actual head of the family, hold the economic power. Today La old is equally powerful, everything at home still rely on her arrangements.

In the morning, before we woke up, my sister-in-law La Chuo got up. She first stoked the fire in the fire pit, then went to fetch water, and also found time to burn incense at the sang product on the wall at the top of the gate. The sang product is a small stone-built platform with a cover to protect it from rain and snow. Lazhuo with a cut pine Ming in the sang product fire, and then add some pine needles, a clear smoke, and then sprinkle some tsampa, water, to ward off evil spirits and pray for blessings.

After burning the incense, she went back inside to make breakfast. After breakfast, she cleaned up, and then started to cook the pig food and simmer the cow's water. She was busy enough with all this work, usually with the help of her mother-in-law, Zhili Zhuo Ma, but in the past two days her mother-in-law was not at home, and all the housework was done by Lazhuo alone.

After she finished feeding the animals, she led her children, Tubdan Tsering and Zhi Shi Nuojie, to work in the fields. Nongbu Chilin and I also followed. Lazhuo panicked, blushed, and said "No, no, two uncle rest tea to go, how can I ask you to go to the field it?" Nongbu Qilin explained that he had been outside all the time, and that the farm work at home was rusty, so he should do some work. We followed Zhuo Ma to the edge of the field, the winter field has not planted anything, just plowed and harrowed some time ago, we have to wait until March to begin to enter the agricultural work. The work to be done today is to fertilize the fields.

Lazhuo told us that now the family in addition to buckwheat planted with cranberries, potatoes, barley, wheat, although now planting food is not very profitable, but this is a fundamental, the species or to plant. Busy after the work in the field, Lazhuo and began to make lunch, after eating her and weaving a "soar". As soar is the meaning of the blanket. Weaving soar is the traditional craft of the Tibetans in Zhongdian, with a specialized loom to weave wool into a very thick blanket, mat. In the past Zhongdian Tibetans weaving soar are with wool, today I saw the pull Zhuuo with some green and flowery coarse wool, she explained to me: "home did not raise sheep, there is no wool, these are acrylic thread, is bought in the city, made out of soar very nice, but also very fast it!" Lazhou spends odd hours weaving, and after a while, she has to attend to the animals again.

It's winter now, and the yaks don't have any grass to feed on, so they produce less milk, and the milk that's stored in the milk is usually milked for a few days to make ghee. The yak's milking action is very gentle, in order to let the yak quiet, but also sing to it. After milking the yak, she heated the milk and the milk saved from previous days together in a pot, the heat should be mastered very well, not even a little bit hot or a little bit cold. After heating, she poured the milk into the "wangnuo" (milk bucket). The bucket is made of wood, about one meter high, with a diameter of 30 to 40 centimeters. Then a milk stick churned hard, these jobs are very heavy, Lazhuo churning also sing the "milk song":

"A few Gajang few yo

Ni Gajang dang ni yo

Song Gajang song yo

Ri Gajang dang day yo ...... "

It means: churn one to bring blessings, churn two to draw blessings and welcome blessings, churn three to bring blessings and fortune, and churn four to attract wealth ......A basin filled with water should be placed next to the milk bucket. Lazhuo played about half an hour, after singing more than ten times "playing milk song", the fat in the milk began to float. Milk bucket caliber is not large, the fat immediately accumulated a small layer, only to see her fishing up the fat into a lump lump thrown into the basin. Look at the water basin floating fat enough, Lazhuo on the free hand in the cold water while fishing, while pinching, while using the hand side of the turn side of the forceful slap, the ghee into a flat round type of cake shape. Today's grease is quite rich, Drolma even pinched two cakes of ghee. She told me:

"In the past, I would have to continue to beat the milk and extract some more fat to make as much ghee as possible, so even the milk residue was dry and tasteless. Now life is better, leave a little oil in the milk residue!" The milk left over from the ghee beating is put into a pan and heated slightly, and for a while it begins to settle. Then the fire was removed and a ladle of sour milk water was added to ferment it. A few more sticks were brought over to the pot and covered with a special blanket.

The free time Lazhou began to clean up the room, about two hours or so, she put a large bamboo bucket on the bucket, the pot of milk scooped out with a bamboo bucket filtering, in the bottom of the bamboo bucket formed a piece of tofu-like inverted cone of milk, out of the fresh milk is still shaking to put the milk above the fire on the shelf of the milk residue, this time it's a great success. As long as a few days, the smoke and fire will be in the milk on top of a layer of black crust, the milk will also plate up.

After milking, do the milk residue, during the day put out of the cattle to be into the pen, feed the livestock ...... to do all this, and to eat dinner time, Lazhuo again began to busy, her feet are almost always trotting through the houses and compounds between. After dinner, all of us are resting, chatting, Lazhuo again began to weave silently beside the soar ......

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